Projectionist gets `reel' joy from her job

August 31, 2001|By Kevin McKeough.

Name: Rhonda Thompson

Job: Projectionist, Lawndale 10 Cinemas

Years: 4

Q. What are your responsibilities as a projectionist?

A. I trouble shoot. I repair the projectors, maintain the equipment. When the film comes in, it comes in cans as reels, meaning that we have to put the film together. I splice the film together. We have to thread projectors.

Q. With 10 screens, are your running from one projection booth to the next?

A. Actually, it's enclosed in one room, one operating area, so I'm operating 10 in one area.

Q. How do you keep on top of all that?

A. That's part of my management skills and being organized. We receive the schedule from the manager and it's our responsibility to keep up with it. Once you do it for a while, you get a feeling for keeping the times. We have to have a system that starts things automatically ... But as a rule, I stand there to make sure it's in frame, that we have sound, that it's correctly on the screen, then I walk away.

Q. Ever had a movie screw up after you walk away?

A. I've never had a big problem ... The biggest problem I've had was involving moisture in the booth, which caused a blade wrap [the film to become tangled] in the middle of the film. That caused the show to shut down, and it had to be re-threaded, it had to be spliced together. But that only happens to me once or twice.

Q. Do you watch certain parts of movies over and over again?

A. I'm watching trailers of the movies all the time, and I'm watching the ends of a movie all the time, during the credits or the tend of the film. In the middle, I'm not paying attention to it, I'm just walking by to make certain everything is working correctly.

Q. Now that you're a projectionist, do you still go to the movies?

A. I don't go to the movies for fun. I see so many movies that I wait for them to be released on DVD and I watch them at home. There are guys that love to watch the movies, but not me. I process the movies so much that I'd rather see a movie from the comfort of my home.

Q. What's your favorite movie?

A. "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me." When that was in our theater, I would make a point to watch certain scenes. I thought it was hilarious.

Q. What do you like best about your job?

A. The independence. I have a job to do, and it's up to me to figure it out and get the job done. I enjoy seeing the raw material, the film that comes in cans and actually seeing the finished project on the screen without any errors. That's my ultimate goal, to have everything put together without any errors. It's like a rush every Friday.